Friday, November 4

Vote for Petro!

I heard some guy call in to D-Locke's show after the opener, saying "Vote for Petro" as he hung up. Brilliant! I don't know if he came up with it, or if I'm just late to the party, but regardless the Johan Petro for Less Pine Time campaign should be in full swing by now.

The rook showed some surprising grit to go along with the expected jitters vs. the Clips. For every time he finished nicely around the rim, just as often he'd get stuffed or swarmed before he could even move. Stranger still, the short-in-the-tooth rookie had more poise than his comparatively walrus-like substitute, Danny Fortson. In 12 minutes, Petro had 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting, 5 boards, a block, 3 fouls, and sure, 3 turnovers.

Meanwhile, Fortson in his 7-odd minutes had only the "Personal Fouls" column filled in his line, with five. Granted, there may be nights when you can swap those Petro stats for Fortson's, but good ol' Fort can always fall back on his league-leading "Boneheaded Momentum-Deflating Play" figures.

One night is not going to get Petro anointed the savior. But he performed well enough to warrant extended play. Steal time from Reggie, who after some quick buckets in the first quarter decided he was the first option on offense. Take time from Danny. Shoot, team the kid up with Vitaly for a Petro-Potato twin tower thing. (Mmm, French-fried Potatapenkos).

I'm ready to believe Petro could be solid for this team. The fact that he did some goofy poppin' and lockin' for his silhouetted pre-game intro was reason enough for me. But if you need more convincing, the reviews in the Times, Tribune and P-I have been positive--not glowing, mind you--but nevertheless favorable.

So Mr. Sonics Post Game Caller, please save me a spot on the "Vote for Petro" campaign bandwagon. Before all the deserters from The Bob Swift Veterans for Truth pile on...

30 comments:

I feel your pain, Dann...er...joey p. I have been DaFort's biggest supporter here at the Soul, and even I am close to giving up on the big guy. Still, as we learned last season, it's only one game. Fortson helped win his share of games last year, and with JJ gone, the Supes need all the Big Nasties they can get.

I'm probably Danny's last friend here in Seattle, but one more game-killing brain fart from this guy might make even me jump ship.

Flip would still get eaten up in the PBA!! There are some guards with handles playin out there.

Petro should have gotten more time, at least he was a presence in the middle. He really showed a lot in his first game. Does this mean Robert "Freddy Krueger" Swift will stay in the D-League for the year?

Danny Fortson, regardless of what any of you all may think about him, has always been a hack.

Hell, even back when Fortson was a productive player -- wherein he had averaged a double-double in points and rebounds throughout both the '98-'99 (Denver) and '01-'02 (Golden State) season -- he still picked up lots of quick, stupid fouls and caused problems with team chemistry.

I'd beg to differ on that score. Overall, Da Fort has always been a hacker, but the first half of last season he seemed to be a good boy. While he was at or near the limit in almost every game, he was still able to average close to 20 minutes in November and December. When you pair that with close to 10 points and 8 boards, that makes for a good part of why the Sonics started out so red-hot last year.

Let's face it, the Sonics' options in the paint are limited. Shard and Sugar Ray aren't going to post up for big numbers, and Reggie Evans struggles with anything beyond rebounding. Fortson (and, perhaps, Collison) alone possesses the ability the rebound, go up strong, convert, and go to the line.

Yes, Fortson got himself in foul trouble last year, but he also got the other team in trouble as well. It was a winning formula - so long as he could stay on the court for about 20 minutes. Of course, if he continues to pull this 5 fouls in 5 minutes nonsense, there is no place for him, but I'm not so willing to cast him aside just yet, and I don't the Sonics are either.

I say give Fort two weeks. If he can't manage to stay on-court for more than 15 minutes on average in that span, then send him to the end of the bench, or waive him and eat the contract.

There's not much of a market for guys like Fortson, obviously, especially when he's ticked off at least 2/3 of the coaches and more than 1/2 of the GMs in the league.

In fact, after searching the whole league, the only viable trade I can come up with is Fortson to Sacramento for Corliss Williamson. Big Nasty's been on the bench for the first two games, only getting 6 minutes of garbage time minutes in Sac's blowout loss to the Hornets.

Like Fortson, Nasty can score down low, grab rebounds and hit foul shots. Unlike Fort, he can be pushed around on defense and won't foul out in 10 minutes. Salary-wise, the trade works, although I don't know if Sac. wants the pig-tailed one around. Considering they've already got Kenny Thomas, and he's complaining about minutes 2 games into a long season, perhaps not.

But considering Brad Miller's already played more than 40 minutes in one game, how long can it be before he gets hurt?

Player AAll American 2nd Team - 96All American 1st Team - 97Conf Most Outstanding Player - 96 & 97Conf Tournament MVP - 97College 2nd place all time leader in scoring, FT made and FT attempted10th overall pick in NBA draft

Player BConf co-Freshman of the Year 96Conf Tournament MVP 97 & 98All American 1st Team 98All American Honorable mention 9710th overall pick in NBA draft

Player A - Danny FortsonPlayer B- Paul Pierce

I wouldn't say Fortson has been a hack his whole life. He has averaged a double double a few times in his career, and had a his best season ended by injury. He is still a good free throw shooter, and can rebound and bang with the best. If he stopped making stupid fouls, he could be a big part of this teams success.

Chunk, back at it again tonight, and all season long.Sec 228Row 2Seats 1 & 2Except at halftime when I will be in the D'igiorno Club downstairs drinking with the wife and the people who sit in front of us. Stop in and say "Hi" anytime.

Petro has adapted to the NBA faster than expected. I thought he could give you Jerome James numbers coming off the bench but be generally bad. But he's been decent and really not all that foul-happy as expected. He used to be the guy who had an incredible body but questionable motivation but about midseason last year he started to look like a guy who gets it and he certainly has gotten even better today.

I wouldn't trade Danny Fortson ($6,415,584) to the Sacramento Kings for either power forward Kenny Thomas ($6,109,375) or small forward Corliss Williamson ($6,000,000); Thomas is a highly overpaid and undersized put-back artist who is in just the third-year of a seven-year, $50 million contract, while Williamson is an extremely soft player who can't play a lick of defense or shoot the ball well beyond 15-feet from the basket.

As it is, though, the best thing that General Manager Rick Sund can do with Fortson is to trade him for an expiring contract; at any rate, however, an example of such a trade would be Fortson for oft-injured center Scot Pollard ($6,274,937) of the Indiana Pacers, as President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird might, perhaps, be interested in a guy with his abilities.

In addition, as I mentioned within the "Fortson Flips, Sonics Get Clipped" post, Sund ought to consider trading reserve centers Vitaly Potapenko and Mikki Moore in a package, so as to acquire guys with expiring contracts like center Aaron Williams and power forward Pape Sow of the Toronto Raptors.

If it's not too early in the season for such statements, this was a huge win for the Sonics. While they didn't exactly play a great game, they did what they had to do and defended their home court. Plus, Ray was $$$$$$$ late.

The team is a lot better without Ronald "Flip" Murray running the point; "Flip" is only useful when Ray "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Allen is resting on the bench. Hell, for what it's worth, I'd rather have Richie Frahm instead of "Flip" on the ballclub.

Also, Danny Fortson -- much to my amazement -- came through tonight; he did an overall decent job playing defense in the paint and controlling the glass. Yet, regardless of his play against the Minnesota T-wolves, he still ought to be traded elsewhere.

Bob Weiss makes the remarkable discovery that a point guard is actually better at running the point when Luke is on the bench than a shooting guard. And it's only game 2! Whatever Coach W's shortcomings, willingness to experiment until he discovers the obvious is not among them.

Is mateen cleaves here to stay? The man from Flint plays for Mr. Flint... D Fort is going to be fine. Vlade, I don't know. Damien seemed better than him in all respects. Hair especially. It's more of a mullet/rat tail hybrid than a pure rat tail though.

ok, i hear yall yelling from the anti-FORTSON camp... horrible first game. he can be a serious baby, he's a total homophobe... he can be a disaster. BUT come on, why you all want to go and get soft? if we really want to contend, we need a big scary bruiser. Allen and Rashard are two of the softest players in the league. When push comes to shove as they say, you really want Luke, Ray, Rashard without backup? Reggie Evans would stand up to anyone. So would Fortson. What you can't forget is that as scary as these guys are for our team they are even more intimidating for other teams. Back in the day, we had Maurice Lucas, we've always known we need a tough guy. We got him in Fortson. AND he took that first game really really hard and came back and played well against Minnesota. I aint saying he's easy to live with, I'm just saying, I'm not jumping on the group think anti Fortson bandwagon.

With Reggie Evans and Nick Collison -- who, as it is, are two of the best defensive power forwards in the NBA -- on the team, there is no real need for the overhyped, overpaid Danny Fortson. Fortson did, however, have a good game against the Minnesota Timberwolves; though, it's doubtful that he'll be as productive each and every game. At any rate, ultimately, it would be more beneficial to the team to have Fortson's $6,909,901 salary for the 2006-2007 off of the books; trading him in return for a player with a contract that expires after the 2005-2006 season would accomplish that objective.

Rashard Lewis is, to put it bluntly, a soft player. His post up moves are, well, remarkably weak in nature; plus, he doesn't shoot very well off of the dribble nor play decent man-to-man or zone defense. Hell, if GM Rick Sund could've upgraded the small forward position this past off-season, then he should've done it; Lewis' +/- is -10.8.

Ray Allen is, without a doubt, the best shooter in the NBA; he, unlike Lewis, is a legitimate superstar.

Ronald "Flip" Murray is one of the worst players in the NBA; his +/- is an extremely pitiful -54.1!

Rashard Lewis had the best +/- on the team last year at +11.8. Next was Radmanovic curiously. I don't think it's fair to say that about Lewis when his stats are skewed by the fact that the sonics have played 2 games. Flip's +/- is probably legitamite though...